Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well basically foreigners entering Thailand and the recent, I guess you could call it a Crackdown here in Thailand on Immigration issues pertaining to foreign nationals. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Immigration Police target visitors making multiple Visa Runs. And look, I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I think the DTV plays into this; I think general border running plays into this; I think overall Immigration Policy plays into this. I'll be honest, I don't think more is being done at this particular moment because we are going into a probable election in the first quarter of next year, and there are sort of other priorities. I'm here to tell you, after we get a new government - I disagreed with him at the time - the late Barry Kenyon wrote an article where he was talking about he thought that this new Parliament would likely see a new Bill on Immigration. I tended to disagree with that at the time because it is my general belief that Immigration is often just not a priority on the minds of legislators. In the interim, since I made that video, we have had a lot of things happen, most notably along the board, and the paradigm shift in thinking on immigration matters, there was a paradise shift at one point which took us from a thinking of administrative paradigm for Immigration, to a law enforcement paradigm. Now we've moved into a national security paradigm with regards to matters that may impinge on Immigration or pertain to Immigration and that's something you have got to be aware of too. 

The point I'm making though here is Immigration is a serious thing with the Thais now and they are very keen on finding folks that are working illegally here or just not here for the reasons that they ostensibly are; for the reasons they are stating. Quoting directly from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com: Immigration police target visitors making multiple visa runs. Quoting directly: "These foreigners do not visit Thailand for tourism. Many of them work or operate business with Thai nominees as their front. They use the visa-free scheme to avoid official visa request before travelling, and their data is not included in Thailand’s systems controlling occupation and taxation," the Deputy Commissioner said." Again, I think this will have implications for the DTV. If you're trying to use the DTV to circumvent work authorization, play all kinds of games with that, they are not messing around about this stuff. 

That being said, it pertains to anybody that's not work authorized. If you're not in a Non-immigrant Visa status in Thailand and you don't affirmatively have a work permit, you have got real problems because if you're not work authorized, they are coming after this. I've done a ton of videos recently. Frankly there's so much news now on this I can't cover all of it; it's becoming so pervasive. Thai Police, in conjunction with their immigration counterparts, in conjunction with the Labour Department, in conjunction with the Tourist Police, DSI and CID, and who knows who else, are very, very serious about finding foreigners in Thailand who are not only operating illegally here insofar as they are just completely utilizing nominees and front companies and utilizing Tourist Visas to maintain their lawful status to remain in the country, they're also looking at restricted occupations for occupations restricted specifically to Thais. This is a very serious time. It's not a time to shirk thinking about work authorization, thinking about law enforcement here in Thailand. There may have been a time where due to the fact that the analog system couldn't really keep track of everything and due to the fact that the paradigm at immigration was one of administrative function rather than law enforcement and even national security now functions, that doesn't mean that exists now. Yes, there was a time you could just sort of get away with that kind of thing; it's over. For good or bad. I am not in love with a lot of this stuff. I don't like a lot of the digitization which I have discussed in other videos on this channel, but the point I'm trying to make with this video is specifically look immigration is now starting to look at people rather than just sort of say “oh, they are tourists, let them on in”, they are really starting to scrutinize. So multiple Border Runs, just you are hanging out in one place and you are sort of associated with a business but have no work authorization, or anything on it, that is a key indicator to them that you may be involved in some sort of nominee structure or just working illegally. So something to keep in mind. Take this seriously because immigration is from here on out.